Our country is in such a state of confusion because we are focusing on the wrong problem. We are diagnosing the problem as school massacres. The act of picking up guns and shooting away at schoolmates, teachers, and themselves strikes us as so bizarre, terrifying, and mind-boggling that we can't focus on the broader picture. All we are concerning ourselves with is the massacre part of the story and how to prevent future atrocities. Every facet of the lives of the murderers is being considered as a legitimate contributing factor in the creation of these teenage "monsters." As a result, gun control laws, violence in the media, parental behavior, social morality, Goth clothing -- anything at all that anyone suspects may have contributed in some way to the violence of Eric and Dylan -- have become targets in our efforts to prevent the disease of school massacres.

How can we expect to fare in our battle against such a problem? In a May 9th article in the New York Times, Sheryl Goldberg reports the conclusions of national experts on statistics and on crime prevention and detection: there are fifteen million high school students in the country, and it is essentially impossible to apprehend the two or three of them who are are destined to massacre their fellows each year. In other words, all the massive measures being taken throughout the country to stop massacres are probably useless. The article also tells us that, statistically speaking, homicide in school is extremely rare and that schools are actually a very safe environment for kids -- "less that 1 percent of child homicides occur in or around schools." In other words, we're fighting an imaginary dragon. A few isolated, gruesome events have occurred within our vast nation, and we act like violence is rampant in our schools. One of the statements that Ms. Goldberg makes is, "Because such events [school massacres] are so rare, and because it is impossible to eliminate risk from life, there may be no larger lessons to draw, and no way to prevent another one."

While that article is packed with valuable though sobering information, I strongly disagree that there are no larger lessons to learn and no way to prevent another massacre. There is, indeed, a larger lesson in Columbine, and there is something that can realistically be done about it.

What is the true message of Columbine -- and the other school massacres?

To answer this, we need to ask, Why do students spray bullets at their schoolmates? It must be realized that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebald committed premeditated acts of mass murder and suicide. As anyone who ever watched Perry Mason knows, premeditated murders have motives . The decision to kill not only others, but themselves as well, was a very serious one, made with a great deal of pain and deliberation. And they were smart enough to make sure to kill themselves before being caught. Had they remained alive, they would be looking forward to decades of living hell, locked up with other vicious murderers, loathed by an entire world, and tormented by their own feelings of guilt. To plan and carry out such a horrible act, Eric and Dylan, therefore, must have had a very powerful motive for wanting to shoot up their schoolmates.

What was that motive? Was it lack of gun control? Did they think, "We are suffering so much because the gun control laws in the country are too lax, and too many people are getting killed. So let's go on a shooting spree and then kill ourselves so that people will want to stop owning guns"? Or, alternatively, "It' so easy to get guns, we have no choice but to use them against our fellow students and ourselves"?

Was their motive violence in the media? Did they think, "Killing looks like so much fun on the screen, let's do it in real life and commit suicide afterwards"?

Was their motive lack of parental supervision? Did they think, "Our parents don't supervise our activities enough, so let's go on an orgy of murder and suicide"?

Was it lack of school security? Did they think, "It's so easy to bring guns into school, so let's use them on others and on ourselves"?

Was their motive lack of exposure to religion? Did they think, "We don't go to church enough, so we're compelled to murder students, teachers, and ourselves"?

Was the motive Goth subculture? Did they think, "We're Goth, so let's end the lives of a whole bunch of people including ourselves"?

Excuse me if these statements sound ridiculous, but it truly is absurd to attribute the massacres to these types of factors that our nation is currently targeting.

What, then, is the real motive behind the Columbine massacre? It was stated clearly and concisely in the e-mail suicide note left by Eric Harris and reported in all the major news media in the country: "Your children, who have ridiculed me, who have chosen not to accept me, who have treated me like I am not worth their time are dead." Even before the Columbine massacre, the picture was clearly emerging from news reports that the student killers were social outcasts and victims of ridicule by peers. Their motive of the killers was very clear and simple: to exact revenge for years of ridicule and rejection, and to make it stop once and for all. When a student plans to massacre his fellows, he is thinking, "You destroyed my life by ridiculing me and rejecting me. Now I am going to destroy your lives!" This is the true reason behind all the massacres! The real message of Columbine is that ridicule and rejection by peers is so painful that it can drive people to ultimate acts of violence! Seeking other motivations for these atrocities can only lead our nation down blind alleys, curtailing our freedoms and wasting valuable resources while children continue to suffer. In the same e-mail note mentioned above, Eric Harris warned against blaming the killing "on the clothes I wear, the music I listen to, or the way I choose to present myself." And he was right! A kid can experience violence on TV and video games all day long, never go to church, have parents who are too busy to keep a constant vigilant eye on him, wear Goth clothing, etc., but he will never pick up a gun to shoot his fellow students as long as he feels respected and accepted by them. Yet, as though we can't read, or as though we can't believe that a murderer actually knows his own motivation, we are going ahead and doing precisely what Eric told us not to do.